If you follow me on instagram (@theartyologist) you will already have seen these pictures. . . but I wanted to post them here as well, because I figured that a hairstyle this different should be documented on the blog! Every August I seem to do something drastic with my hair- and this year it was a pixie cut. I’ve had a pixie cut before, and I loved it. I started growing it out right when I started this blog two and a half years ago, and after having a bob for a year, I was ready for a change.
Anyways, that’s basically all I have to say about these photos, except that this is the sort of outfit I would love to wear swing dancing (these are actually the shoes I used to wear dancing) I used to love going swing dancing on Saturday nights, but as there is no group where I live now, I must make do with breaking out in a few steps in the middle of the street š
If you follow me on Instagram, you will know that these photos are from a couple of weeks ago because. . .Ā I’ve since cut my hair! I was going to post these before that happened, but time just got away from me. (I took at little holiday last week, when a friend came to visit and everything else kind of got thrown out the window, but it was a much needed break!) I still wanted to post these photos though, because as you know by now, I never seem to post “on time” lately anyways.
I rediscovered this peach skirt in my wardrobe a couple of weeks ago and have worn it several times since then. By “rediscover” I mean that when I moved into my new apartment last month, I decided that it was time to finally start “curating my closet”, and during that process I discovered this skirt again.
I’ve talked about my desire to curate my closet before, but I have never actually got around to doing it, so when I moved I decided it was time for a fresh start. There are actually a couple of things that I did to streamline my closet.
The first is that rather than going through my wardrobe all in one go, deciding whether each item was something to keep or get rid of, I am trying another method I’ve heard about. Because I actually do like all of things in my wardrobe, I don’t need to sort through, and pare down my closet because I have things I don’t like; I need to sort it because I’m not actually wearing some of them! So, when I moved into my new closet space, I turned all of my hangers around backwards. As I have been putting clothes back in my closet after wearing them, I’ve put the hangers in the correct way, which makes it easy to see which pieces I’ve actually worn. I’m going to be doing this until September, which is when I will be switching to a Fall wardrobe anyways. Of course, I’ve been taking into account seasonal items! (“I haven’t worn this down-filled parka all summer!”)
It’s looking a bit messy right now, with the hangers going all directions (only another month to go!), but it is definitely making it easy to see which pieces aren’t getting worn. As I’m doing this experiment, I am trying to determine why I wear some things, and pass over others. And, when I am getting dressed, I look at the items I haven’t worn first and decide whether I can wear them instead of the same three things I always turn to. If I wear something and I decide I don’t really like it for some reason, then I know that it is time to pass it on!
Another way I have made my closet a bit more streamlined, is by moving all of my Fall/Winter garments out my closet and packing them away in a suitcase. I used to have quite a large closet, and so I stored all of my clothes in there. The problem I had was that when I went to get dressed, it looked like I had twice as many clothes, but I actually couldn’t wear half of them, because they were out of season. I also moved all of my old clothes out of the closet and put them in a separate drawer. (By “old” I mean, worn t-shirts/pants which are perfect for painting or doing chores in, but not for wearing in public!) Having all of these extra clothes in the closet was making it difficult to get dressed for work, because it looked like I had so much to choose from, but actually a lot of the pieces were unwearable. By moving them to a separate area, I can easily see what I have to wear.
By doing this closet experiment, I decided to try this peach skirt again, since I’ve tried wearing it before unsuccessfully. I sewed it last summer, but never really liked it. I felt frumpy in it for some reason- the gathered waistband perhaps? Maybe I was just in a bad mood? Maybe I was pairing it with the wrong top? I don’t know what it was, but I’ve tried wearing it again this summer, and I love it! I’ve worn it several different times- once with my black Hell Bunny blouse, once with a black drapey rayon top, and once, here, with this sleeveless ruffled cream top. I’ve even worn it with both heels and flats, and I like it both ways, so I guess this time around, the skirt is a keeper! And seriously- the pattern is little people dancing, so what’s not to love about that? I guess it’s a good thing I am sorting through my closet, or I wouldn’t have come across this outfit combination.
Have you ever had a piece of clothing that you didn’t like, and then tried it again with success? And have you tried this method of wardrobe organizing/curating?
I have worn this outfit three times in the past week (or an iteration of it, switching out the flat shoes for high heels on Sunday). This might be because I really like the way the navy and tan go together. . . or it might just be because it’s been too hot to come up with anything new, and so I just keep pulling these same few items out of the closet. . .Ā š
Either way- the third time, today, was the charm, as this is finally the day I got photos of it! It’s been unbearably hot lately, which means that I am a sticky mess and photos are the last thing on my mind. I’ve spent a fair amount of time camped in front of the fan these past few weeks . . . but tonight, it finally cooled off enough to snap some quick photos. Are they the most creative we’ve ever done? Nope. But this is the quickest blog post I’ve ever put together, (less than two hours from the time we got the photos, to publishing) and considering that I’ve fallen of the wagon a bit around here, I decided that it was time to strike while the iron was hot. (Can I fit any more analogies in that sentence. . . ?)
Anyways, considering I really don’t have anything else to say about this, I will sign off for now!
Well, this does feel strange sitting down to type out a new blog post. It’s been ages since the last one. . . and these pictures are about 2 months old now as well- oops! Oh well. Even though it has been so long since I last blogged, I did want to post these images, because they turned out rather nicely, and I was pretty happy with this outfit too. And, I do love lilacs, so don’t mind looking at them again in July š
I picked this little green velvet hat up at an antique store a few months ago, and was very happy to discover that it matched the green of this sundress perfectly. The hat is a bit squashed, and the netting is torn, but it isn’t unwearable, and I rather like the shape of it. It does look nice with my straight hair (an absolute must for hat purchases these days) but I decided to be extra special and curl my hair (my sister did it for me!) for the hat’s first outing. I used to curl my hair almost every day, a few years ago, but now I don’t bother as my hair doesn’t hold a curl for very long and it is so much work!
On to the rest of the outfit- you’ve probably seen this Vogue 1044 dress before, so there’s nothing new there. . .
As for the makeup in these photos, and why it is a bit out of the ordinary for me, I have been thinking of getting a Suva Beauty Hydra Liner, so I decided to try out my sister’s to see how I like it. However, she has a white one, so I decided to get her to do some crazy makeup for this shoot to coordinate with the lilacs. It’s hard to see, but she did green and purple eyeshadow, and a white winged liner. To be honest, I don’t like the white eyeliner on me. On her it looks amazing, and she is the sort of person who can do any kind of makeup and it looks great. And, when I do it. . . I just think it looks weird! Well, it was fun for this photoshoot, but you certainly won’t find me walking around with it in the future š (also- if you aren’t following my sister’s instagram account @therougedgirl you should definitely go and check it out!)
Anyways, I don’t really have anything else to say. . . if I did have anything else to say about the photos, it’s been so long that I have since forgotten it!.
Happy Friday everyone, and hopefully I won’t be waiting a month in between the next post this time!
Well, itās been a while since I last sat down and typed up a blog post, but as this one is very long overdue . . . here goes!
My mom and sister and I have hosted quite a few tea parties through the years- from birthday parties, to girls youth events and now the Garden Tea is an event we hold every year at my familyās acreage. (Iāve talked about it here on the blog.)
This year the Tea was on May 26th, and the day of the party dawned cloudy, and around mid-morning it started raining. This was hardly a surprise as in previous years it has also rained, forcing the event indoors. However, as you might have guessed by the long-winded title of this post, by 3:00, when the party was to begin, the weather had cleared up, the sun was out with a gentle breeze (just enough to keep the bugs at bay!) and we were able to go outside! We really couldnāt have asked for more perfect weather for the party.
I took a few photographs of the decor, but the pictures didnāt turn out as well as the ones I took last year. Since almost everything was the same as last year, (including the lilac bouquets and chocolate squares) you can just refer to this post to see pictures of what the party decoration and food was like.
But, really, the āmostā important part of any Tea Party is, of course, the attire, so instead of focusing on the decor, here is what I wore. This is the Garden Party dress I referred to in my blog post from last year. I have wanted to wear it before, but it just didnāt work out since the party was indoors. This year, however, with the party being out of doors, I could move well enough with this giant skirt without knocking peopleās teacups over!
I made this dress about 5 years ago, or so.Ā I donāt recall there being any special reason to make it- I just loved the fabric. The dress, which I always refer to as āThe Garden Partyā dress, is a pattern hack of Vogue 2962 and a regular bodice top and sleeve. This dress is just so much. There are about 4 metres of fabric in the skirt alone. Itās definitely not the sort of dress one wears on a daily basis- itās just a tad fancier. Like if you were going to meet the Queen. Or something like that.
But, since meeting the Queen isnāt in the near future, a Ladies Garden Tea (which was actually held in a garden for once) will have to do! It was a lot of fun flouncing around in this dress. Although, I must admit that I actually didnāt wear this straw hat during the party, as the breeze kept knocking it off my head, and so I had to give up and go bareheaded.
Well, this is definitely not the best post I have ever written. I am a bit out of practice. . . but at least a picture is worth a thousand words and this is a rather picture heavy post. Thanks also to my lovely sister, who despite the fact that we are both out of practice of blogging, after a month hiatus, took these photos for me!
Hope you are all doing well and enjoying your summer so far. (It might not technically be summer yet, but as we’ve had 34 degree weather lately. . . it’s summer!)
Truth: I hate the smell of mountain ash. I was just doing this for the sake of photo.Ā
